UN plastic pollution treaty discussions falter

There are just two days left for UN countries meeting in Geneva to negotiate a treaty on tackling plastic pollution. The talks remain deadlocked after a stalled first week, which fell behind schedule and produced no clear text. “We have to speed up negotiations,” said EU environment chief Jessika Roswall, who observed: “With . . . days to go, we have more square brackets in the text than plastic in the sea.” A US-led alliance wants the treaty to address only plastic pollution; an EU-led bloc is seeking to include limits on production.